Scratch-off lottery tickets ticket are extremely popular and are sold in magazine shops, grocery stores, convenience stores, and other types of shops and stores. In a typical scratch-off lottery game, a player purchases a ticket from a retailer and removes some or all of a scratch-off material covering a play area on the ticket to reveal numbers or symbol The scratch-off material is usually removed by scratching or rubbing it with a fingernail or edge of a coin. Depending on the rules of the particular instant lottery, the numbers or symbols indicate a winning ticket or a losing ticket. If the ticket is a winning ticket, the player presents the ticket to the retailer, who validates the ticket by scanning in a redemption bar code and/or by entering a validation or redemption number into a point of sale terminal. Once validated, the retailer pays the player the lottery winnings. If the ticket is a losing ticket, the ticket is worthless and the player usually discards it.
Scratch-off lottery ticket theft is a major problem faced by both lottery ticket suppliers and retailers. In one type of theft, a thief steals several scratch-off lottery tickets and removes the scratch-off material from all of the tickets to identify any winning tickets. Once identified, the thief returns to the retailer with the winning tickets. Since the retailer assumes that the tickets were purchased, the retailer pays the thief.
Some lottery tickets employ a validation bar code, a redemption bar code, or some other type of security code covered with a scratch-off material. The ticket is rendered void if the scratch-off material is removed by the player or anyone else, except the retailer. However, these security measures can be circumvented by a dishonest store clerk who cooperates with a thief to identify winning tickets and validate them, splitting the payout between them.
In another attempt to thwart theft, one or more lottery tickets are packaged together in a sealed plastic envelope or sleeve. A bar code, sometimes referred to in the art as a validation bar code, is printed on the plastic sleeve. The lottery prize for a winning ticket in the envelope is only payable after the bar code on the sleeve is scanned in at the time of purchase. Of course, a thief may tear open the sleeve without purchasing it and search for winning tickets. However, upon presenting the winning ticket to the retailer for payout, the ticket will not validate and thus cannot be redeemed as the envelope bar code was never scanned. That is, the ticket remains deactivated.
Not surprisingly, thieves have found a clever way around the envelope security measures; they carefully slice open the edge of the envelope with a razor blade and scratch off the tickets to determine if any of the tickets are winning tickets. Winning tickets are retained by thief. If necessary, in order to disguise the opened envelope, the thief places a ticket that has not been scratched off in the winning envelope. Then he purchase the envelope; the retailer is unaware that the envelope is open. Later, the thief returns to the retailer with the winning ticket which is successfully validated, and he collects his prize money.
Almost all of the prior art that is feasible for use in large scale distribution and sale of scratch-off lottery tickets share the same disadvantages, namely the bar code and packaging security measures, used alone or in combination, are easily thwarted by clever or bold thieves, crooked store clerks, or crafty razor work. And, other prior art that promises a solution to these outstanding problems require specialized equipment and systems, or are costly, or are generally incompatible with ticket sales and validation systems currently in use. Thus, a need presently exists for an anti-theft lottery ticket and methods.